Incoming students at the University of Kansas are being encouraged to take “Safe Zone” training where participants say the affirmation, “I believe nobody is wrong, they are only different.”
KU’s Center for Sexuality and Gender Diversity in partnership with the Office of Multicultural Affairs has a new “pledge” it asks students say, although its moral relativist bent has raised concern among conservative groups. The 28-line “Allies Pledge” was identified by Young America’s Foundation (YAF) during efforts to monitor censorship on campus.
Some of the lines, which were first reported by The Washington Examiner on Friday, include:
- I believe success is the freedom to be yourself.
- I believe nobody is wrong, they are only different.
- I believe your circumstances don’t define you, rather they reveal you.
- I believe without a sense of caring, there can be no sense of community.
- I believe our minds are like parachutes. They only work if they are open.
The school’s rationale for the voluntary program “is to reduce homophobia, transphobia, and heterosexism on our campus to make KU a safer and freer environment for all members of our community, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression,” the newspaper reported.
YAF is a nonprofit organization with a mission statement to ensure “that increasing numbers of young Americans understand and are inspired by the ideas of individual freedom, a strong national defense, free enterprise, and traditional values.”
The group was founded Sept. 11, 1960, at the home of conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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